Brown's Daily Word 4-10-08

Good Morning,
Praise the Lord for His Word. It is written that the grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of the Lord endures forever. His Word does not return void. I spent a couple days in Washington, DC, attending a conference on Preaching . Some of the speakers for the event included Rick Warren, the author of "The Purpose Driven Life", Chuck Colson, and Bishop William Willimon, from Northern Alabama conference of our United Methodist Church. It was a great blessing to be there, to hear and to know that our Savior is alive. He is risen. He is reigning. He is coming again. He has built His church upon the Rock, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. It is a blessing to know Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and it is a great blessing to belong to the Church, His body. We are getting really excited as we prepare for the big event for this week - the "Five 4 Five" concert on Friday evening. I spoke with two of the lead singers of the bands. They love the Lord, and they are excited to share the Good News with the young people tomorrow. Just a reminder - the concert will be at 7 p.m. tomorrow evening at the Sarah Jane Johnson Memorial United Methodist Church, 308 Main Street, Johnson City. We still have tickets for sale - so you can buy your ticket at the door. There is still time to send or bring your young people. Please pray for the Lord to pour out His blessings on all who attend.

Hugh Latimer, the first Protestant Bishop of Worcester, and English Reformer and martyr, in a sermon preached before the King’s Majesty in April of 1549, tells the story of a young woman in London who was asked by a neighbor, “Mistress, whither go ye?” “Marry,” she said, “I am going to St. Thomas of Acres to the sermon; I could not sleep all this last night, and I am going now thither; I never failed of a good nap there.” More recently, theologian Thomas Allan has written: “It takes a great amount of skill to take the gospel and make it boring, tedious and dull. Our preachers today, it seems to me, have mastered that skill right well.” In past generations it was the expectation that ministers would spend hours in prayer, study and preparation for the Sunday sermon; and these men used to stand boldly in the pulpit on Sunday morning, with open Bible in hand and proclaim, “Thus says the Lord.” It used to be that Christians would walk miles to hear a good sermon. It used to be that Christians would feel cheated by a sermon that was less than an hour in length. It used to be that people read sermons, discussed them at Sunday dinner, and readily compared the merits of different preachers they heard on a regular basis. “Where as 200 years ago the preaching of Jonathan Edwards made all of New England quake in its boots. Preaching is indispensable to believing. And believing is a prerequisite to salvation. Preaching is the sine qua non—the “without which nothing”—of faith and everlasting life. John Stott, the former rector of All Souls, London, put it this way: Preaching, he said, is indispensable to Christianity. Without preaching a necessary part of its authenticity has been lost. For Christianity is, in its very essence, a religion of the Word of God. No attempt to understand Christianity can succeed which overlooks or denies the truth that the living God has taken the initiative to reveal Himself savingly to fallen humanity; or that His self-revelation has been given by the most straightforward means of communication known to us,namely, by a word and words; or that He calls upon those who haveheard His Word to speak it to others.
“Preach the Word!” Paul admonishes Timothy in II Timothy 4:2. “Be prepared in season and out of season,” he says. One of the essential qualifications for the office of presbyter given by Paul in I Tim. 3:2 is that he be able to preach. Why? Because preaching is fundamental to the job. The power of preaching—because preaching is the sharing and applying of this book—lies in the fact that God has spoken and continue to speaks through His Word. “All Scripture is God-breathed,” Paul says in II Tim. 3:16. Opening up this book and reading and expositing its truths is not the same thing as opening up and reading Shakespeare, and listening to a university lecture about one of his plays. Shakespeare is inspiring, but the Scriptures are inspired. And there is an eternity of difference between the two. The first truth that is fundamental to preaching is that Almighty God has spoken in the pages of the Bible; that He has revealed Himself, His will, His law and the way of salvation in the words of the Bible. And without that conviction, preaching is nothing more than a discourse on Semitic literature, or the sharing of one man’s ideas and opinions. I like the definition Andrew Blackwood, former editor of Christianity Today, gives for preaching. He said: Preaching means God’s way of meeting the needs of sinful men through the proclamation of His revealed truth by one of His chosen messengers. But far from being a collection of pious sayings and sentiments from days gone by, the Bible is the vehicle that God uses to still reveal Himself, His will and His salvation to mankind. God still speaks through His Word today. For the Word of God is living and active, Hebrews 4:12 says. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. The power of preaching, because preaching is the exposition of the Word that God has spoken and still speaks through, secondly, lies in the fact that this Word can change hearts and eternal destinies. God’s Word is a living thing. That conviction underlies true biblical preaching. God’s Word has power, therefore, to change you. It has the power and ability, by the working of the Holy Spirit, to change your mind, melt your hard heart, cause you to love and forgive the unlovable and unforgivable. It is powerful. The Word of God can convert the soul. It can move you to tears. It comforts and relieves your fears. It can give you wisdom, strength and courage. The Word of God is active. It plants seeds in your heart. It moves within your soul, often times when you are not even aware of it. It breaks down walls of hatred and mistrust. It binds hearts together. It sheds light on the paths of our life that we might see things as they really are and not as wish to see them. I read a story recently about the conversion of the most notorious drunk in a small Texas town. Apparently the town drunk wandered into church one Sunday morning. And after the sermon he came forward during the altar call with tears streaming down his face. He was gloriously saved that very morning. After the service, the pastor of the church ran up to the man, grabbed his hand, and said, “What was it that I said this morning that changed your heart?” “Nothing,” the man replied, “it was your text.”“It was your text.” Biblical preaching is powerful, because God has spoken and speaks through His Word, and that Word can change hearts and destinies. In Isaiah 55:11 God declares: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
In Christ,
Brown

Please make a note of the following upcoming youth event.
On Friday, April 11 at 7:00 p.m. there will be a "Five 4 Five" concert. This concert will be held at Sarah Jane Memorial United Methodist Church, located at 308 Main St. Johnson City, NY. Five 4 Five is a national tour that features five bands in concert for just $5.

The bands are: DIZMAS, THE SEND, A DREAM TOO LATE, CHILDREN 18:3, AND CAYERIO.

The event is being sponsored by the Union Center, Boulevard, and Hawleyton United Methodist Churches, First Presbyterian Church of Endicott, and First Baptist Church of Owego.

Tickets are available at itickets.com or by calling 1-800-965-9324.
Tickets can be purchased from Arrowhead Christian Bookstore 607-798-1793
Union Center UMC—Pastor Brown, umcgospel@aol.com or by calling, 607-748-6329.
First Presbyterian Church—Jeremy Finn, JMFinn@hotmail.com or by calling 748-1544.
Hawleton United Methodist--Ray Haskell, wpuckey@stny.rr.com or by calling 669-4373.
First Baptist Church Owego--Rev Marlene Steenburg, mcsteenburg@aol.com or by calling 607-232-2302.
Boulevard United Methodist Church--Rev Tony, blvdumc@stny.rr.com or by calling 607-797-5675.
Sarah Jane Memorial United Methodist Church-Phone number is 797-3938